Foreign Worlds
by sinisterkid92
Summary: The summer was about Bella coming out of her shell and be more social, not fall in love with Alice's father, Edward. E/B E/T B/J
1. Chapter 1

_Hello World! So, this is a fanfic that has been lying around on my computer for a while, and I decided to get this up here to get it done! This is my first true romance story, which is a bit exciting and scary. Expect some angst in this story. This story is loosely based on "Creature Fear" by Bon Iver, which is where the title is from, too. _

_I'm planning on this story to be only written in Bella's POV, Edward's POV might pop up sometime during this story, but don't count on it. I like the mystery of writing in just on POV. I can promise that everything I take up will be answered in one way or another, and I can promise that everyone will have their fair share of issues to deal with. I will try to keep this story as realistic as possible, so no insane drama, or stilted dialogue if I can help it._

_If you hate Jacob or Tanya, sucks to be you. I'm tired of Tanya being the bad girl, and Jacob being the enemy of Edward, so they won't be the bad people in this Edward/Bella story._

_At the moment I'm in my last month of school, and then I'm working throughout summer, so I'll do my best with updates. Please please please review and say what you think because I'd really like to hear people's opinion of this story, good and bad (no bashing though, lol), and I'll do my best with getting back to you and updating!_

_TY for reading :)_

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><p>I can swear in ten languages. It's not that hard. The thing is, though, that I don't usually swear. Mostly I just like to know the words. Then there were occasions like these, where I didn't seem to know enough of them to sum up my frustration of being sent far away from home the whole summer.<p>

My parents had brought it up for the first time in April. At that time I hadn't thought much about it, they had talked about summer camps before, but I had always opted out of them, and there weren't any fuss about it. This time though, it wasn't a summer camp, it was the Cullen's beach house in southern California.

The Cullen family was the picture-perfect family, and were constantly on everyone's lips in the small town that was Forks.

They consisted of Carlisle Cullen, the retired and kindhearted doctor, and his loving and unbelievably charitable wife Esme Cullen. Their sons Edward and Emmett, that inherited both intelligence, goodwill and looks from their parents. Emmett moved on to do greater and bigger things in the cities, as did Edward for a while before he decided to settle down with his family in Forks, too.

Edward married Tanya, who was probably one the most beautiful women in the world, and eventually they had the three perfect daughters Alice, Irina and Kate. They continued to feed to the perfect image, and they really were.

Despite the fact that I rarely indulged in any conversations, or even eavesdropping, I knew that all that was said about the family were positive things. It was impossible not to like the Cullens.  
>I had only crossed paths a few times with Edward's daughters, mostly Alice since she was closest to me in age, whereas Irina was four years younger than me, and Kate was eight years younger.<br>Alice was a social butterfly, beautiful, graceful and everything I was not. Even before she started high school she was the most popular person there. Everyone wanted to be her friend, and Alice wanted to be everyone's friend. She even wanted to be my friend.

It was because of this I didn't want to go. If they weren't so friendly and eager, it would have been easy to fade into the background.

There was no hiding of the motive of why my parents insisted that I went. Somehow they believed that if I spent enough time with Alice, Alice's ways would rub off on me, and I would actually find a friend, or something.

If it only were that simple.

"What have you packed?" Mom asked, startling me as I was staring at my suitcase that was still empty. "Oh, Bella," mom looked down into the suitcase and sighed. "Can't you make a little effort?"

She turned towards my closet, and took out three shopping bags filled with summer clothes that I had no intention to wear, ever. I preferred my denim shorts, and my old and worn t-shirts, not frilly skirts, and cutesy shirts. If I wasn't spending my summer in California, I would have opted for jeans and long sleeved shirts, but now I was going, and I'd actually have to wear next to nothing.

"Have you even tried these on?" She picked a pink blouse up out of the bag. I decided that the question was rhetorical, so I turned to look down in my bag, again.

"I don't like clothes like that," I look up at her again. "They're not me…."

"Fine, ok, I'll take them back to the store, just pack something, we're leaving at 5 am tomorrow." Both of us turned to look at the clock. It was 9pm.

"Ok." And I started packing all of the summer clothes I had worn previous years, not really caring if they were too small for me. Maybe if I dressed like a slob they'd let me be, and wouldn't drag me around to those useless dinner parties that upper-class people are known to hold.

Then I was reminded of the credit card, and Alice's passion for shopping, and that Irina was on the road to become even more passionate about fashion than Alice. If that was possible.

Ever since I had faced my doom, and realized that there was no getting out of this nine week trip to California, I had tried to gather as much information about the Cullens as possible.

To be honest, it wasn't easy. It wasn't just because I was opposed to eavesdropping, and hated talking to people I didn't know, it was because there was basically no information about them. What people knew, I already knew.

They were wealthy, earned a lot more money than my parents did, and that was impressive. Edward owned his own business, no one really knew what he did, and Tanya owned a very popular beauty salon and spa in Seattle. Alice's real name was Mary Alice, after Edward's grandmother. Irina and Kate's names weren't actually that. They were Esther Irina, and Greta Kate, named after Tanya's distant relatives. But they had the decency to call their children by their middle names, which were far more common.

Other than that, besides their address, the location of their summer house, and a few of their interests - which weren't unique or interesting at all, really - there wasn't much else to find out about the Cullens. Which bothered me.

With every other family in town I could easily find out their exact income, their hopes and aspirations, a few skeletons that had fallen out of the closet. I could find out everything about their grandparents, their cousins, everything. But the Cullens had a freakishly clean reputation.

Mom came into my room again at half past ten, and peered into my suitcase. I was expecting the sigh that came a few seconds later, as she pulled up a band t-shirt I had bought when I was thirteen.

"This will be too small, Bella, have you even tried it on?" I snatched it out of her hand, and folded it neatly in the bag again.

"Yes, and it fit perfectly," I lied. I was a terrible liar, and my mom saw right through me, and shook her head.

"You have grown a lot since last year Bella, clothes that fit last year won't fit this year," she pointed to my chest area. Feeling my cheeks heat up, I folded my arms across my chest, in an attempt to hide my breasts.

I had expected my breasts to stop growing when I was fifteen, so when I went from an A cup to a C cup in less than 18 months, I almost had a melt down.

"I like that shirt, besides, I'm not going to wear it if we're going somewhere…." Feeling self-conscious, I closed the bag and walked into my bathroom, knowing my mom would follow me.

"Have you packed anything you can wear when you're going somewhere, then?" She leaned against the door way, and looked at me as I started to brush my hair. My hair was too long, the ends almost touched the top of my hips. No matter how many times I had begged my mom to let me cut it short, she had persuaded me to let it grow. I went to the hairdresser once every six weeks and cut off the tips, so that it would grow even longer. I bet that in California my hair was going to make me combust because of the heat.

"I've packed a few shirts, two skirts since you basically harassed me into taking them with me, even a dress…, I've packed a lot of things."

"Ok, I trust you… have you packed your tooth brush, face creams and all that?" She looked into my vanity bag, only to see that I had already packed everything in there. "What about your carry on?"

"Books, Ipod, money, passport, notepad, laptop, phone, camera," I said monotonously, rolling my eyes. "Don't worry, I have everything I need."

"Your birth control then?" Of course, I had to forget that.

Mom put me on birth control when I was fifteen, she said that she didn't want me to go through what she had gone through when she was sixteen. She was stupid as a teenager, had unprotected sex, and ended up pregnant. Too embarrassed to tell her parents, she went through with an abortion without telling anyone. It would have been a scandal if Renée Bryce, daughter of the richest man in town, had ended up a teen mom.

Though, I wasn't sexually active at all. I hardly masturbated, even. There were times, but they were few and far in between, usually after I'd seen a film where I found an actor in it particularly good looking, or after a steamy scene in a novel I was reading.

"I'm going to pack it tomorrow, after I take it," that seemed to appease her.

"Sounds good," she walked up to me and hugged me. "Good night, Bella, I'll wake you up at four, so you should go to bed now."

"Yeah, good night."

After she left I brushed my teeth, washed my face and changed into my pajamas. But I couldn't fall asleep.

The Cullens were already there, they'd been there a week. It was awkward coming later, probably ruining an already established routine.

I thought about Alice, and how different she was from me, how different her whole family was. My dad was a former sheriff, but decided to invest in his own security company, which took off pretty quick, and earned us a lot of money. But I hadn't grown up with this amount of money, it happened when I was eleven, and I've had a hard time taking in the fact that I am that rich, and not living in the middle class family I was born into.

Alice was born into wealth, she was sociable, trained in gymnastics and in dance. Whenever she walked down the hallway it was almost like she was dancing. I was extremely introverted, and I couldn't stand on one leg without falling over.

The last thing I remembered thinking before I finally fell asleep was that I wished I had Alice's life.

The flight to California was uneventful. I arrived to SeaTac at 8am, my mom insisted that we drove, so that we could spend a few last hours together, crammed in a car. Though neither of us felt particularly chatty that early in the morning, so we sat quietly while looking our of the window.

I checked in when I got there, and sat quietly reading by the gate, waiting for boarding to start. Sometimes I looked up at a momentary commotion caused by a lost couple or a small child that had fallen.

At 11am the plane took off.

I'd never been to LA before, or California. Usually I went with my parents to Florida to visit my grandparents, so the heat wasn't as new to me, though after spending a cold winter and a record cold spring in Forks, it was quite a shock to me when I walked off of the plane. Immediately I started peeling off my shirt, leaving me in my almost see-though white tank top. I couldn't do much about my jeans, so I rolled them up as far as they would go, and fanned myself with the hand that wasn't carrying my carry-on.

After I had gotten my luggage, I looked up and saw the amount of people arriving, and picking people up. I panicked, how was I supposed to find anyone in this crowd?

Maybe I should just sit down, I thought, eventually the crowd would disappear, and it would be easier to find them. It might take a few hours, but rather that then wander aimlessly through the throngs of people, causing us to walk past each other. They always tell you to stay put, it's easier for the person searching for you to find you then. But what if they were doing the same thing, and we all were just standing there waiting for each other?

I was pulled out of my thoughts as a small girl with black hair threw herself towards me and gave me a big hug. As soon as I realized what was happening I let out a big yelp. A second later I realized that the small person hugging me had to be Alice.

"I'm so sorry, Bella, I didn't mean to scare you," she apologized quickly as she let me go. "I'm just so excited that you're finally here!"

"Yeah, me too," I said breathlessly. I was unsure if I was lying or not. It was nice to be there after the long trip, but I'd rather be home, searching through the library to find a book to read.

"This summer is going to be so great, " she took my carry-on in one hand, and my hand in the other. "My uncle and his wife live only a few minutes away from us, and my uncle's wife's adopted younger brother, Jasper, lives there too, he's 18 and so hot, he's going to take us to parties and drive us around… I know you have a driver's license, but you don't have a car, and then in July grandpa and grandma are coming down for a week, and they're going to take us to these amazing restaurants, only the best people go there. And our neighbors Jessica and Angela, they're so cute, we're probably going to hang with them a lot."

We reached Alice's father, Edward Cullen. He was handsome, to say the least, most of the female population in Forks wished they were Tanya, with the exception of the women who were more attracted to women. There weren't so many openly gay men in Forks, but there was no doubt that even the closet gay men would come out if they found out they had the slightest shot at Edward Cullen.

Edward Cullen was hot, and being able to ogle him all summer might not be so bad. Discreetly, of course, since I wouldn't want to offend Alice.

"Hi, Mr. Cullen," I said awkwardly, and put down my suitcase on the ground. My hands were starting to hurt.

"It's nice that you're finally here, Bella, and please call me Edward, Mr Cullen is too formal for the summer." He smiled, and it was one of those smiles that you couldn't help but return one.

"Ok, let's go," Alice interrupted, and hurried out of the doors.

The ride to their beach house was filled with Alice telling me all about our plans for the summer, probably the edited version, since she didn't mention anything about the parties with Jasper.

I was told that her friends Jessica and Angela were born and bred here in California, and they had a huge group of friends, and I was going to love all of them, apparently. Tomorrow night we were going over to their house for a barbeque, where I would be introduced to all of their friends.

It sounded exhausting. I longed for this summer to be over.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello everyone, thank you all for the reviews and the subscriptions. My life is super busy right now and I shouldn't even be updating this because I'm now that busy! I'm almost done with school, and I'm feeling it. I'm going to try to thank you all personally next week, I only have a few things in school then. I haven't even looked through this for spelling or anything yet, heh. Sorry 'bout that.

Thank you so much!

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><p>Their house was beautiful, their car was beautiful, the beach their house was situated at was beautiful, their pool was beautiful, the flowers were beautiful. Even the rocks on the ground were beautiful. There was an abundance of beautiful things. Everything was just perfect. It made me want to cry.<p>

"Alice, why don't you show Bella her room, and I'll bring her bags up later," Edward said as he stepped out of the car, though Alice didn't need to be told, she was already dragging me up the marble steps and into their house.

The A/C was on, so it was a bit cool inside, but it was a perfect contrast to the heat outside.  
>"Your room is on the second floor, it's got the view out on the pool, it's a pretty view, you'd get the ocean view if we weren't redecorating that room this summer… there was an accident in there last month, so we had to throw basically everything out of there."<p>

I looked around the hallway that was connected with the large living room. It was white, and open, with large glass doors, and through the glass I could see two girls, Irina and Kate, sitting in two lounge chairs, playing cards, under a large parasol.

Everything looked clean, nothing was out of place. At home we were pretty bad at keeping everything in order, despite the fact that we had a cleaner that came everyday and did next to everything for us.

"Up here," Alice said, already with one foot on the white staircase. I wonder how long I had been standing there taking everything in. I hoped it wasn't too long.

"My room is next to yours, or there is a bathroom in between. The room you should have gotten has its own bathroom, but with the accident… if you feel uncomfortable using that bathroom you can always use mine, I'm used to sharing." She continued to explain.

We reached the second floor, and I looked up towards the third floor absentmindedly, wondering how it looked up there. The second floor was painted in soft and warm yellow colors, still looking just as clean as it was downstairs.

"Mom's and dad's room is up there." She opened the second door to the right, and walked in smiling as I followed after her.

The room was quite big, with a queen sized bed up against the center of the wall. Behind the bed was two large windows, they almost went from floor to ceiling, with a pretty impressive view. The pool was just outside of my window, and the sun shone on it, causing it to shimmer. Flowerpots filled with flowers of all colors were strategically placed around the pool, and half a dozen lounge chairs were standing next to each other, with small matching tables standing in between them.

"This is beautiful, Alice." I turned around and looked at her, and she seemed pleased.

"I'm so happy that you like it, Bella… It would have been awful if you hadn't!"

"As long as I have a bed and a bathroom that I can use, it's no big deal," I shrugged, and sat down on the bed, my bed for the coming 9 weeks, the coming 63 nights. Alice suddenly relaxed as I said it, and sat heavily down on the bed.

"Good, because I wouldn't have been able to handle yet another person demanding the best." I bounced slightly on the bed, since I didn't know how to answer what she had said. Should I say sorry, or you're welcome, or… what should I say?

"I'm going to fall in love with this bed…," I said instead, and laid down. Sure enough, it was like laying on a cloud. It was when I lay there I realized just how long this day had been.

"When did your plane leave Port Angeles today?" Alice suddenly asked, probably seeing that I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

"Mom decided that dad should dive us, so we left at 5am."

"Oh, do you want to take a nap? I'll wake you up when it's time for dinner," she hopped out of the bed.

"Is that ok?" I asked hesitantly.

"It's better than you falling asleep at the table, no one looks good with food in their face, except babies, but they look cute, not good."

"Thank you, that's really nice…."

"Don't worry, sleep."

When she left I took off my jeans and crept under the covers, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Alice woke me up a few hours later, as she had promised, and told me it was time for dinner. Still half asleep I put on my jeans, and headed downstairs behind Alice. I really needed a tour of the house, I had no idea where the kitchen was, even.

We went out to the back by the pool, and around the corner where a table that could easily fit fifteen people was. Around it sat Irina, Kate, Edward and Tanya already, all of them with food on their plates, but no one was eating.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Bella," Tanya says as she stands up and walks towards me, hugging me tightly. "This summer is going to be wonderful."

The three of us walked back to the table and sat down. I was sitting opposite Edward, who was smiling at me. This time it wasn't the friendly smile, it was probably more of a smirk, and my lower stomach started to tingle slightly. God, it was at least five hours until I could go to bed, would I be able to last that long before I started running?

"Bella, this is Irina, and this is Kate," Tanya continued to introduce her family. I already knew who they were. Irina looked older than 13 years, she almost looked older than me, and I was 17. Alice looked younger than Irina, Alice was small in all ways, and Irina was small too, but not in the same way. Kate, however, who was 9 years old, looked just as awkward as I did at that age, and I felt a bit sorry for her. It couldn't be easy to have such beautiful sisters and just be slightly pretty.

"Hi," I waved awkwardly, and looked down at my plate quickly. There was already food on my plate, too. Home made Caesar salad. It looked delicious.

"Can you swim?" Kate asked, and I looked up at her, surprised.

"Yeah, but I'm not so good at it," I admitted. Despite the fact that my grandparents had a pool in Florida, I was never much for swimming.

"Should we call that instructor again?" She asked her parents, and even though it was a perfectly innocent question, I started to blush. Why hadn't I learnt to swim before?

"No, I think Alice and Bella will manage," Edward answered, looking at me amused. What was up with that guy? He was supposed to be kind, and not laugh at me when I was embarrassed.

"Yeah, don't worry Bella, I've taught both Kate and Irina to swim, as well as Jasper last summer," Alice reassured me.

"So now that that is settled, let's eat," Tanya said, and Edward and Kate immediately grabbed their knives and forks, and started to eat. It was a bit amusing to watch the contrast between Edward and Kate, and the rest of the family. Alice, Irina and Tanya slowly ate their food, probably chewing everything fifty times before swallowing, and none of them talked until they had swallowed everything in their mouths. Edward and Kate ate their food as if it would disappear from their plate at any second, and often jumped into conversations with some food still in their mouths. It wasn't disgusting, because they still managed to do it tastefully, somehow. Maybe it didn't bother me because it was them, The Cullens, the perfect people. Maybe.

"You're starting your senior year soon, aren't you?" Edward asked, this time without any food in his mouth.

"Yeah," I nodded, and faced my plate again.

"Remember our senior year, Tanya," Edward laughs, but no one laughs with him.

"I don't think it's a story to tell in front of the children," Tanya said shortly, obviously not amused, and the light banter at the table quieted, and no one said anything. I look at everyone at the table, no one was looking at each other, everyone were looking down at their plates. This was strange, because this wasn't perfect.

"Do you want to watch a film after dinner in my room?" Alice asked me, almost frightening me out of my thoughts.

"Sounds good," I nod. But really I just wanted to go to my room and process what just happened.

After dinner Alice told me to put on my pajamas and come into her room after that.

I got to my room and closed the door behind me, letting out a big sigh of relief. The time I had spent with other people, talking with people, today was more than I had spent with people the past year.

It was exhausting, and confusing.

Slowly I walked over to the window, and looked down at the pool. Maybe looks really are deceiving, I thought, maybe they aren't good people, maybe they're just excellent liars. They could be anything, they could be dangerous.

No, that is ridiculous, they're the kindest people on the planet, they can't be dangerous, I shook my head.

My suitcase was now standing by the end of the bed. I didn't remember seeing it when I woke up after my nap, but I guessed someone had to have brought it in while I was sleeping.

I opened the bag, deciding that I could unpack tomorrow. On top of all of the clothes was my pajamas. A pair of newly bought blue pajama shorts, and a blue-grey tank top. At home I usually slept in sweatpants and long-sleeved shirts, but it would be too warm here in California for that, so I had to compromise slightly. Mom told me that I'd give in and sleep in just my underpants, like I did inFlorida, but I was adamant that this wouldn't be the case. It wasn't my grandparents house I was sleeping in, grandparents who I knew would never walk into my room unless they were invited in. I didn't know how they did it here.

I wasn't in a hurry to get to Alice's room, quite the contrary, I was trying to drag out on the inevitable.

I undressed slowly, taking off my shirt, and then my pants. As I was stumbling out of my pants, trying to save my face from the hard floor, I caught the sight of Edward and Tanya standing by the pool. By the looks of it they were fighting.

I quickly tried to turned away, but my feet, tangled in my jeans, wouldn't move. Eavesdropping, and spying, were two of the things I promised myself I would never do. I would never stoop that low. I wasn't that kind of person.

Carefully stepping out of my pants, I tried to not see what was going on by the pool, but it was hard to not see it, no matter how I turned my head. Tanya stormed away from there just a few seconds later, and I breathed a sight of relief, and my pants came off.

I picked the pants up from the floor and put them in my suitcase, turning towards the window again. Edward was still standing there by the pool, looking towards the way Tanya had stormed off, and rubbed his jaw, deep in thought.

He looked pretty damn hot, for a 35 year old man. He was like Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp; aging suited him.

Though he didn't look like he was aging, he still looked like he was in his twenties, somehow. There wasn't a single grey hair on his head, and he barely had any lines on his face. Though, if he had any, I wouldn't have noticed because of his eyes, or his lips, or his nose, or his face, or his hair, or his body. Every single thing on him looked good.

I sighed, and as if he heard me, he looked up at me right then. I was too stunned to step away from the window, and just stood there for ages, looking at him as his face seemed to relax completely, his jaw dropping slightly. It was a bit comical, because at first I couldn't understand why he reacted the way he did, until I realized I was standing there in only my underwear.

My face grew hot when I looked down at myself, at my breasts that were almost bursting out of my bra. God, now he's going to think I want to seduce him or something!

Bolting from the window, I picked up my pajamas and threw them on in a hurry. I needed to go to Alice now, otherwise I'd probably start hitting my head against the wall until I killed myself. And I didn't want that.

Couldn't I just stay and read a book or something? Surely that would distract me from imagining Edward… doing things. But then I remembered why my parents sent me here, and it wouldn't be fair to Alice if I decided to completely ignore her all summer. Even though that was what I wanted to do. Not because she's awful or hard to be with, being social was just exhausting.

I couldn't focus on the film Alice had started. There was too much in my head. Had Alice's dad checked med out, or was he just shocked that I was standing there in the window, practically naked? Probably the second choice. Maybe he thought I did it on purpose!

As the screen showed two people kissing in the rain, and I realized that I had no idea what the film was about in the first place. The characters were unfamiliar, the lines they said caused Alice to practically melt, but I was only confused.

"This is my favorite scene, ever," Alice said suddenly said, cuddling up against me. "No film can beat this." She sighed, and cuddled even closer to me.  
>I couldn't remember the last time someone was this close to me. In the hallways in school I sometimes walked into people, but that wasn't the same. Sometime mom or dad would hug me, but it wouldn't last this long. For minutes I just sat there, unsure of how to react to the proximity. Was I supposed to do anything? What was that, then?<p>

Eventually I decided that sitting ridged was probably the last thing I was supposed to do, so I relaxed slightly and leaned back against the pillows we leaning against on Alice's bed.

This summer is going to be a challenge, I thought.

When the film ended, Alice had already fallen asleep, so I sneaked back into my room. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and combed my hair.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next day Tanya and Edward had gone out, taking Kate and Irina with them, so I woke up to a practically empty house. I felt relieved, knowing I'd be able to take a shower in the hallway bathroom without being a nuisance. Someone else had to be using it as well as me.

I had always loved showers. They offered a kind of tranquility that was hard to find anywhere else. No one bothered me when I was in the shower, it was just me, my own breathing and the hot water relaxing my muscles.

At home I could stand in the shower for an hour, until my fingers were prune and completely soft, but I didn't want to do it here, not when Alice was probably waiting for me, so we could go out. We were meeting up with Jessica and Angela. I had almost forgotten that. Almost.

Reluctantly I stepped out of the shower after twenty minutes, drying myself as quickly as I could, and put on my torn denim shorts that were a bit too short, and the band t-shirt mom had told me would be too small. It was a bit too tight over my chest, and it reached just bellow my bellybutton. It wasn't ridiculously small, so it'd do. I opted to wear a bikini under, since it was perfectly plausible that I could end up in a pool today.

I brushed my teeth, and brushed my hair and put it up in a ponytail, knowing that after spending months in cold Forks, the heat here would come as a shock to me. I then put on my sandals and stepped out of the bathroom, only to run straight into Alice.

"Yay! You're dressed," she took a hold of my hand and almost dragged me towards the stairs. "Jasper is picking us up and driving us to Angela's soon, you'll love Jasper, but hands off, he's mine," she said the last part in a sing-song tone.

"Are you dating him?" I was confused. Alice was soon sixteen, but it still felt a bit weird that an eighteen year old and a fifteen year old were dating.

"Kind of… but don't tell my dad, he'll freak out." Just as she said that her phone started ringing.

It was only eleven am, and I was already exhausted with everything that was happening. I didn't think I'd be able to handle this many things happening all the time. So Alice had a secret boyfriend, sort of, which wasn't legal or supported by her parents. What would happen if they found out?

"Uh, I won't tell, promise."

Jasper rang on the front door ten minutes later, while I was cursing the fact that I brushed my teeth before breakfast, so the juice tasted disgusting. While Alice rushed to answer the door, I put my glass of juice down, and walked into the living room to see her standing in the doorway kissing a guy with long blond hair, he looked strong as he flexed his muscle when he held her closer.  
>Kisses fascinated me, but that didn't mean that I continued to look at them. I looked away quickly, trying to cover my blush. They simply fascinated me because I had never been kissed. Since I rarely talked to anyone at my school I subsequently never got close enough to a boy, and never got kissed. It didn't really bother me, mostly because I knew I was far from the only one, and I was in no hurry at all.<p>

"Bella, this is Jasper," Alice said as soon as she had detached her lips from Jasper's.

"Hey," I waved, since we were standing eight feet from each other, a handshake would've been impossible at this distance. Jasper, however, walked in a few long strides up to me and shook my hand enthusiastically.

"Really nice to finally meet a friend of Alice's." He spoke like he was ten, not one, years older than me.

"I… uhm, I'm," I started to stammer. I wasn't technically Alice's friend, since my parents had actually forced me to come here, but Alice wasn't at all bad company. We were acquaintances now, we'd be friends later. The technicalities didn't matter, I decided, but by the time I decided to go along with what he said, Alice was standing next to Jasper, and we were apparently leaving.


	3. Chapter 3

Very sorry for the delay, I have been quite busy with graduation, working, have been abroad, and currently I'm looking for an apartment which I need ASAP. Not much fun right now. Working 6 days a week every other week, so that sucks the energy right out of you, lol. And my sister always interupts me while writing to tell me about something someone did on Animal Planet, so not much gets written either (and this happened while typing this...)!

Anyway, here it comes! Not had time to read through it, so I apologize for the typos.

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><p>Jessica and Angela weren't exactly neighbors, they lived five minutes from the Cullen's beach house. Jessica had been Alice's neighbor when they were younger, but they moved three years ago. Angela used to live with Jessica's family for weeks at a time while her parents were traveling the world, so Jessica and Angela were like sisters, and it was easy to tell the moment I first saw them. When we walked out back, where they were laying in the sun, both of them were talking animatedly, and close together. One of them had dark, almost black hair, and the other one had blonde hair.<p>

"Jessie, Angie!" Alice called, and rushed over to them, and started talking about god knows what. It felt nice to not be a part of the chatter, for once today. Ever since Alice had found me outside of the bathroom she had been talking nonstop. The five minute car ride that became ten minutes because of the red lights, and all the way into the house. No one got a word in. It didn't seem to bother Jasper though.

"How'd you know Alice?" Jasper suddenly asked, coming to stand next to me. He didn't look at me, it was like all he could only see Alice.

"Our parents, they're friends," I bit my lip. Conversations were always awkward, I could never come up with the right thing to say, the things that got the conversation to continue. It was made even harder when he wasn't even looking at me.

"So you've known her a long time, then?" He chuckled as the blonde girl tipped Alice over, so that she fell over the black haired girl.

"No, not really…"

"So how long then?"

"Two days, I guess." This made him look at me, frowning.

"How come you came here then?" Ah, the burning question.

"My parents made me, not that I um think it's horrible or anything… I just like to be home… so far it's been really good here, but yeah… not my idea to come here in the first place." Shit, did I offend him now? Ugh, I should never speak again.

"Ok," he chuckled at me, and I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. "Mike!" He yelled, startling me enough to so that I jumped back two steps. "Sorry Bella…" He apologized.

"Don't worry" I shrugged, and he seemed pleased with the answer, and hurried towards the pool, where another blonde boy was swimming. This boy was cute, in a boyish kid way.

After a while I learnt that Mike was Jessica's, blonde girl's, boyfriend. Angela was the girl with the dark hair, and just like me she seemed more content with just listening to everybody talking, rather than engaging in the conversations.

"Bella, do you have a boyfriend?" Jessica suddenly asked, after she and Alice had talked about Jasper and Mike, who had been swimming in the pool, for the last twenty minutes.

"No," I said, hesitant. I didn't really know how they would react to that, maybe they would think it was weird. I didn't know how girls in California were, were they just like girls in Washington?

"Oh ok." Jessica seemed to be deep in thought for a minute. "Oh, Ange, doesn't Ben have those super hot friends?"

"Uhm, yeah." It didn't look like Angela had expected to become a part of the conversation. "Oh! Yes, he does."

"You should invite them over, I'm sure they wouldn't mind the pool." Jessica raised her eyebrows suggestively. "And I wouldn't mind the view."

"I can call them, they're always bored." Angela shrugs, and picks up a phone from the table standing between her and Jessica.

Twenty minutes later the pool was filled with seven boys, and most of the water was being splashed up at us, who were sitting around the pool.

"Come on ladies, jump in!" a muscular guy with russet skin yelled, and both Jessica and Alice giggled. Alice quickly took off her top, and it was hard to miss Jasper staring at her with an open mouth, probably drooling, as she pulled it off her head. One guy used this as an opportunity to take him by surprise and push him under the water.

"Bella," Alice urged with a smile, and I decided that I didn't want to be the only not in the pool, I didn't come here to be anti-social, I came here to become more comfortable in social situations. This is a social situation, I thought, I need to push myself to be a part of it, despite the fact that I had no idea what to do when I was in the water.

Angela, who was already dressed in just her bikini, slid into the water where I guessed Ben was, and wrapped her arms around probably-Ben.

All of us girls wore strap bikinis, which made me feel a bit more comfortable, only a bit more, despite being almost naked. Mom had insisted on this bikini, and three others that the same model almost, only different patterns and colors. This one was dark brown, which I felt might tone it down a bit. I had wanted a bathing suit, it would have made me feel a lot more comfortable.

The guy who had yelled at us to get in smiled at me as I walked towards the edge of the pool slowly. He pulled himself out of the pool, the water pouring off of him, and extended his arm for me to shake.

"I'm Jacob," his smile revealed teeth that almost shone against his dark skin. I tilted my head up to look at his face, he had to be almost twice my height.

"Bella," I shook his hand, and watched with big eyes as my hand disappear in his hand. This guy was bigger than any guy I had ever met. He chuckled, and I tilted my head to look at him again.

"Suits you." He continued to smile while I just felt confused. It was as if he had just told an inside joke I wasn't a part of. "Your name, it suits you." Oh, right, my name. Bella means beauty. My cheeks grew hot. This wasn't the first time someone complimented my looks, strangers had a habit of doing so, but no one who knew who I was, those who knew the reclusive Bella, told me I looked good. It's the inside that matters, and everyone around me proved that.

"Uh, thanks," I tried a smile, but my cheeks were stiff with embarrassment.

"You're not from here, right?" He looked at my sickly pale arms. They almost looked translucent.

"No, " I said, wrapping my arms around my body, "I'm from Forks."

"Oh, yeah, I've heard about you coming!" - Wait, what? - "We've been waiting for forever for you!"

"You have?"

"Yeah, and we're gonna make your summer-"

"Ey, wimps! Get the fuck into the pool!" a guy interrupted.

"Dude, you're the wimp, Embry," Jacob said, laughing, then turned to me. "Ready to get wet?" He whispered into my ear, and wasn't sure if there was supposed to be a double meaning or not, but I still blushed. Though I didn't have time to be embarrassed for long, because he scoped me up and put me over his shoulder. For the first time in my life, a pure and simple girlish scream escaped from me, and I hit his back lightly in pretend attempts to get away. This was exciting.

And then he lifted me up and let me go.

The water was cold around me, and I shivered as I resurfaced, just in time to be hit by the wave Jacob created as he jumped in to the pool.

Alice grinned at me, and swam up to me.

"What was that about?" Her grin wasn't so innocent, and that confused me.

"What?" I looked around, trying to figure out what she was talking about. Was she talking about Jacob and I talking?

"You and Jacob, just now," she looked at something over my shoulder, and I turned around to see what it was. Jacob was looking straight at me, now grinning at me. Strange.

"We talked." I'm sure if I told her that Jacob had called me beautiful she'd make a hen out of a feather.

"I think he wants to do more than talking," she smiled. I shook my head. This girl was fifteen, was she supposed to talk about sex so casually? It felt weird.

"Um…." What was I supposed to answer that with? Was it at a time like this girls squealed?

"You are talking too much," Jasper said as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her midsection.

"What are you gonna do about it?" I turned away before I was subjected to even more PDA.

Everyone seemed to know each other. A few of the guys were wrestling, some were diving and jumping into the pool and then getting out to do it again. There were people everywhere. Luckily the pool was big.

"Are you alright?" I turned my head and saw Angela resting her arms on the edge of the pool.

"Yeah, a bit overwhelmed," I admitted, swimming over to her, and did the same.

"They're noisy boys, but they're fun," she smiled at Probably-Ben as he dived into the pool.

"I'm not… I'm not used to being around this many people," someone swum by us under water, and grabbed a hold of Jessica, who was standing a few feet from us.

"I'd probably stay in my room all day if it weren't for Jess, she drags me out of the house everyday."

"Do you like this, uhm, I mean being around so much?" I bit my lip, this was someone who could understand me, someone who would've been a bit like me, had it not been for Jessica.

"Yes, it's great, once you're out and a part of it, you kind of forget that you wanted to be alone today," she smiled a content smile. That gave me hope. Maybe it would take a while for me to get there, but one day I was going to find company comfortable enough to fully enjoy it.

We got back to the Cullen's beach house just in time for dinner. My hair was still a bit wet, soaking through my t-shirt, and both of us smelled of chlorine.

"Just in time," Tanya said and smile at us as we walked through the door. "Did you have a good time today?"

"Mmhm," Alice said, smiling. "The boys came over."

"What about you, Bella?" I nodded quickly, a bit too eagerly, in response. "That's good. We're having a small barbecue today, so come get your food by the grill."

We headed out back to where the grill was at, and as soon as I stepped outside I was hit by the scent of meat, and then three seconds later I saw Edward. He was standing by the grill, wearing just his shorts, and nothing on his upper body. For a moment I felt like I couldn't breathe. I'd never reacted this way to anything before. It was embarrassing, it was Alice's dad!

Alice was already up at the grill taking her food, and was gone before I had even reached it.

"Did you have a nice time today then, Bella?" Edward kept his eyes on the grill while talking to me. Awkwardly I picked up a plate next to the grill and stood there, unsure of what I was supposed to do now.

"Uh, yeah, it was nice," I nodded. It was then he looked up at me, and either I imagined it, or he looked at my exposed stomach a bit longer than he should have, before looking up to meet my face.

"I like that t-shirt, are you a big fan of the Rolling Stones?" He kept looking at the tongue at the front of my shirt.

"Uh, they're ok, I used to love them, but… I don't know," I bit the inside of my lip. His chest and abs was distracting. I hadn't thought that men who weren't movie stars could have abs like that when they were above thirty. And, oh, he had a happy trail.

Too many dirty thoughts and images rushed through my head in that second. I wanted to see the end of that trail.

Lucky, lucky, Tanya.

"The shirt looks good on you," he said and smiled, putting food on my plate.

"Uh, thanks." I hurried to the table.

At dinner Alice noticed for the first time what I was wearing, and unlike Edward, she didn't like it at all. After we showered off the chlorine, she decided that she was in charge of dressing me for the party we were going to. Angela's parents were out of town for six weeks, so Angela and Jessica were throwing a party there. One of many, Alice promised, and almost seemed giddy.

I had never been to a party, just heard people talk about it in the hallways. Mondays after parties it was hard to shut off my ears, I wasn't eavesdropping, they were practically shouting it in my ear. Most times it were stories of how wasted someone was, what someone had said and how funny that was. Some of the time it were rumors about what had happened at the party, someone had sex, or a couple broke up. Nothing of what I heard sounded appealing to me.

Alice raided through the drawers, trying to hunt down something that I could wear, but she didn't seem to be finding anything.

What was I supposed to do at a party, I didn't belong at a party.

After a while, she found a denim skirt, a bit too short, and a red tank top. I had a feeling that she wasn't entirely pleased with the outfit, but made due for my sake. This was as dressed up as I would ever go.

When we walked out of the front door, I was still waiting for her to hand me tights. But she never did.

The music was loud, but still bearable, when we got there. It was obvious that the party had been going on for a while at least. I think I saw someone throwing up in the bushes at the side of the house. Not so classy.

Even though I had never been drunk, I still knew a few things about what alcohol did to you. Throwing up wasn't a good sign.

"Ok, so don't talk to anyone you don't know here, okay? Everyone you met at Jessica's are ok people, but the rest… just talk to… Jacob!" Just in the middle of Alice's safety-first speech, Jacob walked up to us, and put his enormous arm around my neck. It was heavy.

"Bella, you're here!" He shouted, he was obviously a bit under the influence. I wonder how much alcohol he'd have to drink to get drunk, since he was quite big. Or maybe that didn't matter…

"Yep, here," I smiled awkwardly at him, then turned back to Alice in hopes that she would rescue me from his heavy arm.

"Jasper," she said, and pointed at the door, before making a beeline for him. He had dropped us off at the house while he parked the car a few blocks away.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Bells," he grinned big.

"Jessica and Angela are over there, I'm gonna go and say hi," I said, and rushed towards the table filled with beer cans, where Jessica and Angela stood.

"Hi." Ok, now what? Should I just stand here and look like I'm dumb? I didn't know what to say.

"Here, have a beer," I accepted the can she gave me, opening it and drinking a bit of it quickly, so I wouldn't have to say anything.

"Ugh, that's disgusting!" I exclaimed, after I had swallowed it.

"After a few you won't even taste it," Angela promised. I didn't know if I'd be able to drink just one.

"Ok…" they kept looking at me, so I couldn't pour it out. I took another sip of it. God, please save me.

We walked out back where, unsurprisingly, at least fifteen people were in the pool, and two of them were naked guys. I looked away quickly, I didn't want the first guy I saw naked to be a drunk guy pretending his penis was a lasso.

As Jessica and Angela talked about a film coming out next month, I sat awkwardly next to them, and whenever they looked my way I would take another sip of my third beer, hoping I wouldn't throw up. And since I had never drunk anything before, and I was pretty sure I was an extreme lightweight, I felt a little bit tipsy.

When they started talking about their boyfriends, I felt it was time for me to go. I didn't want to hear them gushing. Besides, I needed to pee.

"I need to pee," I said quickly to them, and hurried away. Had I just said that? Hadn't expected the head and mouth filter to go this early on into drinking. Wow, I didn't want to drink more.

Less people would probably use the upstairs bathroom, so I headed for the stairs. It was easy to find the bathroom, it even had a sign on it, like it was a public restroom in a restaurant. No one was waiting in front of it, and the door was unlocked. The sight I was met with wasn't what I had expected to see. Not only had I now seen a guy naked -and got to see in person that penises are far from pretty, I also got to see a naked girl. I got to see it all.

It was kind of a knee-jerk reaction, of seeing it, seeing everything, and slamming the door shut immediately after I had fully registered what exactly was going on. That was when the embarrassment kicked in.

"Shit…." I turned around and opened the closest door, which conveniently was a closet, and ducked into it. I could hide here until Alice called me to say we're going home, until then, I wouldn't move.

The air was stuffy in the closet, and after a while it felt like I was breathing in the same air I was exhaling. Still, it was quite comfortable sitting in the lit up closet. I had to turn on the light after a stack of clothes fell over me. It scared me half to death.

I heard muted sounds coming from the couple in the bathroom. After a while I figured out that if I concentrated on my breathing, their moans and groans would disappear, and it would just be me.

I lost track of time after a while. I barely noticed that the couple in the bathroom stopped making noise, and probably left. Sometimes I would feel the bass in my body, and could faintly hear the music as it got louder. All the songs sounded just the same.

Just as I was about to check the time, to see how long I had been sitting there, Jacob opened the door and stepped in.

"This wasn't the bathroom," he laughed and looked down on me.

"It's the next door," I pointed to the right.

"It can wait." He sat down next to me, but it wasn't easy because of his size. He huffed and puffed, trying to get his butt down on the ground.

"You sound like an old man," I giggled. I decided then that I couldn't have been sitting there for so long, since I was still a bit tipsy.

"6 foot 7 isn't an easy height, I'll tell you that."

"You're really tall," I smiled at him. "And sort of hot," I admitted. He was, in a rugged, not at all classically hot, way. It was like he had experienced life, it shone through him, and made him so undeniably good looking.

"I'd say the same about you, beautiful girl," he whispered into my ear. It was so cheesy I couldn't help the giggle that escaped.

"I'm sorry," I said, still giggling. The look on his face was kind of dumbfound, like he didn't know whether to laugh or not. "I'm sorry," I repeated, this time not laughing.

"What was so funny about that, then?" He was smiling so big, and just like with Edward's smile, I smiled back just as big.

"It was just so… cheesy."

"Ok then, fair enough, what about… I want to kiss you, right now." My smile faltered slightly. He wanted to kiss me? Because I laughed at him?

"Uh, ok," I nodded.

His face inched towards mine slowly, his eyes closed. I wondered how his lips would feel like, would they be rough, or soft or… they were soft. My eyes closed, because I was going cross-eyed trying to look at him. They were soft pressed against mine, soft between my lips.

He kissed me, his lips moving, and mine moving as well, like they knew how to do this. Then I felt his tongue, and everything was just on instinct.

It was pretty hot, like with every second that passed a fire in my belly grew bigger an hotter. His hands didn't make it better. His hands were huge across my back, then moved to palm my breasts.

I took the hand that was currently on my breasts and put it on my waist instead.

"Too fast."

"Ok." And he kissed me again.

"Bella, you're pretty, though you dress horribly, so don't become a fashion guru, or whatever, ok?" Alice ranted in the backseat. "And you, Jasper, Jazzy, Jazz, you're… wow." With that revelation she sunk down in her seat. "Urgh, it's hot in here, can you roll the window down?" She moaned in the backseat, this caused some reaction in Jasper, who had up until then not paid much notice to her ramblings.

"Are you feeling nauseous?"

"No!" she replied, indignant. "It's just hot and I'm uncomfortable, would you mind if I take off my shirt, Bella?"

"Uh, I think it's best if you keep it on." This was not the time for undressing, especially not when we were going inside her house in just a few minutes.

"Aw, Bella, you're so cute!" She exclaimed, leaning forward to plant a wet kiss on my cheek.

Jasper helped me get Alice out of the car, and we decide that he should carry her in, because her tripping over her feet, and her loud talking, would wake up her parents and get us into trouble. I didn't want trouble, not on my second day here.

"Alice, can you try to stay quiet for five minutes, we don't want your parents to hear you," Jasper asked Alice as she jumped up on his back.

"I'll try the bestest I can!" She exclaimed, and rested her head against Jasper's back. "I'm tired…"

"You'll soon be in bed, just sch, and we'll get there."

Slowly we creeped through the house, quietly, except from a few moments where Alice forgot that she was supposed to be quiet.

"Jasper, you'll sleep with me, right?" Alice dragged him down onto the bed with her, hugging him tightly.

"No, love, maybe some other time," he sighed, getting up and kissed her hair.

"Or not," she turned her back towards us. "G'night."

"Good night," we both said to her, and walked out.

I walked down stairs with him, and let him out, then headed up again. It was almost two am and I was ready to pass out.

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><p>So... Jacob? You might have to worry about him a <em>little bit <em>in the future, but maybe not in the ways you'd think. Some of you may even cheer for him! Who knows? I don't even know where the story is going at this point, or more like how it will go to the end. But remember one thing: I'm trying to keep true to the characters in the book and how I interpreted them, meaning that the good guys are the good guys, and the bad guys will stay bad.

Next update? Hoping for next week, since I do have quite a lot of time off then (woho!)


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter hasn't been looked over, spell check or anything like that. I wanted to get this chapter out as quickly as possible because at the moment I feel like I don't have much time to write at all. I constantly wish I could write but either I'm exhausted or busy with other things. Even though this was my "slow" week and where I intended to get a lot of writing done, I won't really get a real day off until Sunday, and next week will be crazy to say the least. I probably won't update for a while, but I really do want to get this story written.

This is as far as I've written on this story so far. Writer's Block won't let me go, it only hugs me harder. I do know now where this story will take Bella and Edward, it's just the getting there that I'm wondering about. I have certain scenes planned, but they are for the future. I will give you more backstory of the characters soon, and maybe some one-on-one conversation between Bella and Edward.

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><p>Something was splashing, wet. I was swimming, and the waves hit up against me. There was a bright island in the distance, right at the horizon. Otherwise there was only water around me. Only water nothing else.<p>

I opened my eyes, and looked straight out of the window. The spot lights in the pool caused the waves to be reflect in my ceiling, it looked like I was at a big aquarium.

I had forgotten to close the curtain tonight again.

Annoyed, I stepped out of bed and walked towards the window to close it. That's when I saw him in the pool, the reason why I had woken up. Edward. He was swimming laps in the pool.

He swam with jerky and fast movements, causing more water to splash around him than necessary. It was three am, and he didn't seem tired at all. That couldn't be normal.

He swum lap after lap, and it didn't seem like he was planning to stop anytime soon, until he suddenly stopped, in the middle of the pool. For a few moments he stayed where he was, and then swam to the edge of the pool and pulled himself up. His arms flexed, his stomach tightened, and the water ran off of him. What I'd give to be one of those drops of water going down his chest.

I wished I was down there, so that I could see him more closely.

I had expected him to walk inside after swimming, but he apparently had a lot more energy left in him, since started to do push ups. I counted them, one, two, three. No wonder he looked so good. He had to be really strong, strong enough to carry me without sweating. My insides tingled at the thought of him holding me up, fucking me against the wall. He'd have no problems with that. He'd fuck me up against the wall right here. My insides clenched. Oh, couldn't he please do that?

As he continued to do push ups, my breathing grew more elaborated. And when he finally stood up, his body now practically dry, I sucked in a deep breath. His abs, his ass, his chest and his arms…

"Oh god," I whimpered.

What I'd give to have an Edward Cullen in my bed right now.

I needed to get away from the window before he saw me standing there, just like last night. That would be embarrassing.

Deciding to leave the curtains open I walked back to bed, because then he'd see me closing the curtains, and know I had seen him.

Sleep didn't come easily this time, my mind was reeling with images of Edward, of him holding me up, hovering above me, his face between my legs.

I clamped my legs together. God, I'm wet just thinking about it.

I closed my eyes, but there he was standing, naked, begging me to fuck him. His erection was impressive.

I slipped my hand under my underwear. Edward yesterday picking me up from the airport, Edward sitting at the table, smirking, Edward shirtless by the grill, Edward looking up at me, Edward swimming, Edward doing pushups.

I bucked my hips against the covers, and pushed one, two, fingers inside of me. His fingers would be longer, they would reach spots I couldn't reach. He would lay beside me, pumping his fingers inside of me, brushing his thumb against my clit. He would palm my breast, kiss me…

The pressure built in my stomach, until it all exploded. I arched up from the bed from the power of the orgasm, momentarily not existing. Floating around in nothingness as I came down.

Oh shit…

I needed a shower.

The day after Alice was too hung over to do much. We lay out back by the pool, under the shades. It was nice, after two hectic and exhausting days. And for the first time since I got there, I was able to open up a book and read it.

Though Alice claimed she wasn't that hung over, she did walk around with shades on for the better part of the day, and admitted that she had spent a majority of the early morning puking her guts out. Even though she'd been sick, she ate basically all of the greasy food in the house, and ordered home a pizza that we shared a few slices of.

"Jasper's adopted, I said that, right?" Alice suddenly said,

"Yeah, you said that," I nodded.

"His dad was a friend of Rosalie's father, Rosalie is my uncle's wife, both of them were in the army… when Jasper was thirteen, his father was killed in Iraq… his mother didn't handle his death so well, and she neglected Jasper a lot. Jasper did alright, he was mostly just hurt because his mother refused to acknowledge him, but after a while child services discovered he was neglected… Rosalie's dad John, took him in, and when Jasper was fifteen they adopted him."

"Oh…"

"I'm telling you this because… I know your mom…," she trailed off. My mom, right. The woman who can suddenly disappear without a single word said. Once she was gone a whole year. Dad and I didn't think she'd come back. When she did come back I sometimes wished that she hadn't, and sometimes I hated my dad for taking her back so easily, no questions asked.

We stayed quiet for a while, and I looked down at the book that laid open in my lap. Dad and I were constantly waiting to find her closet empty of clothes.

The good thing about me being gone is that I took the bags with me, and it would tip dad off if she bought new suitcases. Then he might be able to stop her before she walked out the door.

"He's really easy to talk to, about everything… I think it makes it easier for him, sometimes, to help other people by taking from his own experience."

"Thanks," I smile awkwardly, and burry my face inside the book. I didn't want to think about mom leaving us, there was no point in it. Walking around worrying about it wouldn't do any good, yet still every day I expected her to be gone.

"How did you and Jasper become… how did you start dating?" They weren't in a relationship, I reminded myself. What they were exactly, I had no idea.

"I'm Jasper's best friend, and he's mine… it was like the natural thing… but I don't think my parents, or Rosalie and Emmett, would be happy to hear about it, so we're not going to have anything to tell until after I've turned eighteen," she said it like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Isn't it ages until you turn eighteen?" She took off her shades, and looked straight at me. Piercing green eyes, the same ones I remembered seeing on Edward.

"Two years and one week, I turn sixteen next week," this time she smiled bigger. "And Jasper has said that since I'm going to be above the law of consent back in Washington-"

"Ok, I get it," I held my hands up. I did not want to hear fifteen year old Alice say the word sex. She seemed amused at that I had cut her off.

"You know it's just natural, Bella," it was like she was the older one, that she was the one turning eighteen in September, and I was turning sixteen in a week.

"There are a lot of other natural things we don't talk about in a normal conversation," I replied heatedly, my cheeks hot. "Sorry… overreaction." She accepted my apology by not commenting on it.

"Jasper called me and said Jacob's been talking about you." She said it casually, like it was no big deal at all. Maybe it wasn't, guys talked about girls all the time, like we talked about boys.

"He did?"

"Yeah, he couldn't stop talking about your _kiss_," this time she gave me a pointed look. "Why didn't you tell me you had kissed him!" She practically started bouncing in the lounge chair. The hangover was probably gone, I guessed.

"You were kind of drunk…." Was this an unwritten rule? Tell your friend about guys you've kissed? Was it obligatory? Because I didn't really like that rule then.

"But I'm not now, so tell me about it!" She angled her body towards me, looking all ears.

"I don't know, there's not much to tell…."

"Ok, let's start with _where_," she was too giddy for her own good.

"Uh, a closet, you know those linen closets."

"Wait, how did you end up in there?" It looked like she was trying to think of all possible scenarios that might've had us end up there.

"I was… hiding in there, and Jacob walked in thinking it was the toilet," I shrugged. It wasn't a big deal.

"And then what?"

"We talked, and then he kissed me."

"Did you…" was she insinuating that I had had sex with Jacob, in a closet?

"No! I mean he touched my breast, but I pushed his hand away…" I looked at her wearily. I had revealed more than I had intended, but I guess she might've found it out some other way. I wasn't completely sure how the whole he said she said thing went, but I was pretty sure it rarely worked in anyone's favor.

Just then Edward appeared next to us, and I hoped to god that he hadn't heard what we've been talking about.

"Alice, Bella, would you mind helping Tanya in the kitchen, I need to head out and meet up with Billy," he said while putting on his watch, and even that looked hot. I was such a goner.

"Yeah, sure, what's for dinner?" Alice and I stood up, walking with Edward into the house again.

"Some fish, I'm not sure… I'll be home late, ok?" He kissed Alice on top of her head and smiled at me. "Have fun."

"We will," Alice said, and took my hand, leading me towards the kitchen. I learnt where everything was a little by little. I was still unsure if they had a living room with a TV, if they had game consoles and all that. Rich people tended to have those things, we had those things, and rarely, if ever, used them.

When we got into the kitchen Kate was sitting on a barstool, dangling her legs back and forth as she was turning fish in breadcrumbs.

"The young ladies have arrived," Tanya said, smiling from her spot at the counter, where she was cutting vegetables. "I'm really happy that you're helping me, otherwise this wouldn't be done until nine, and everything would have been overcooked."

"No problem," I said, shrugging. I wasn't sure what my task would be, so I leaned against the counter where Kate was working, her lips pouted in concentration.

"Alice, can you do that dill sauce, and Bella, would you peel the potatoes?" She gave me an apologetic smile. "I'd put you in charge of something else, but I don't want Kate working with sharp objects, and it's Irina's job to set the table, and Alice is so secretive with the ingredients in that sauce she's making," as she spoke of Alice, Tanya wrapped one arm around Alice's neck, pulled her gently towards her, and kissed her cheek.

"Don't worry, it's fine." I didn't really mind, it would be nice to not just sit around and be served.

I peeled potato after potato while listening to them all talk, they seemed so close, all of them, laughing at the same things. After a while Irina came into the kitchen and sat down next to Kate, teasing Kate as she flipped the fish. Kate didn't take offense, she just laughed at the half assed jabs Irina shot at her.

"Do you know which college you're going to apply to then, Bella?" Tanya asked as she started frying the fish in the pan.

"I'm thinking about going to an Ivy League school, it would be pretty great if I got in, but it's on the other side of the country, so I don't know…." This is what I hated the most, and I knew that in just a few months I would have to make my mind up, or I'd end up taking an accidental sabbatical year.

"My whole family have gone to Penn, and so will these ladies," she spoke up, and Kate and Irina stopped bantering to smile at their mom.

"What did you study?" I placed the last peeled potato in a pot filled with water.

"Mathematics," she revealed with a big smile. I gaped, mathematics… it was the subject most had a difficulty in, the one even I, the straight A student, found myself struggling to comprehend, at high school level. And wasn't there this law, the one that said that beautiful women can't be smart? A law that made regular looking women feel better about themselves? So unfair.

"Wow, was it hard?" My eyebrows were probably up in my hairline.

"Oh yes, but in the beginning I was motivated, I wanted to do it, so then it wasn't _as_ hard." She turned around to look at Kate who was listening intently to what her mom was saying, and Irina who was busy texting on her phone. "If your phone bill is over 50 you're paying," she warned Irina, who only rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I promise."

"Tell her what made your motivation disappear," Alice jumped in, smiling knowingly at her mom.

"This brat here," she pointed at Alice. "I met Edward just a few days before Sophmore year started, and by Christmas I was pregnant with this girl. When she came I wanted to be a mom more than I wanted to be anything else, so I dropped out to take care of her," Tanya smiled so big that I was sure her cheeks were aching.

"She loves me more than numbers," Alice gloated, putting the sauce she had been making at the other side of the kitchen on the counter between us. "Now, let's boil potatoes!"

Seeing them laugh with each other, tell me stories about things in the past, I was reminded by my parents. Renée used to laugh a lot when I was younger, I faintly remember mom and dad laughing with each other, chasing each other around the house. But as the years passed, and Renée's habit of disappearing started up, laughing became a less frequent occurrence.

"Have you ever been to the water park, Bella?" Kate asked me, dipping a potato in Alice's amazing dill sauce.

"No, I haven't."

"Mom, we should go there tomorrow! It'd be so much fun!" She jumped up and down in her chair, much like Alice had jumped up and down in the lounge chair earlier. She then turned to me and almost leaned over the table. "I'll show you all of the good slides, oh, and I've grown _a lot _since last year, so I can go on like all of the slides now!"

"I don't know about tomorrow, but your dad might be able to take you on Saturday," Tanya answered motherly.

"But that's four days!"

"I know honey, but we don't have time to go earlier."

As they continued talking, I zoomed out for a bit. They were going to send me to a water park, and I barely knew how to swim. Ok, I knew how to swim well enough to keep myself afloat, but was that well enough for a water park? I was a bit doubtful.

Alice came into my room after dinner while I was changing into a pair of sweats and a baggy t-shirt.

"If you don't want to go to the water park, just say and I'll talk to my mom about it, you don't have to go," she said, and sat down on my bed.

"It's no big deal, it will be fun," I honestly wanted to go now, I wanted to make an effort to be social, and being social with a eight year old wouldn't be too complicated, I thought. Maybe it would be easier, a way for me to ease into this thing.

"You don't have to please my sister, it's not your task," she continued to talk, not even hearing me. To be honest, I was a bit offended.

"Alice, it will be fun, I've never been to a water park before, " I smiled, "It'd be fun to do something I haven't done before."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

She continued to sit on my bed, looking around in the room. That morning, while Alice was still sleeping, I unpacked the rest of my things, and tried to make my room for the summer a bit more like my room back home. Though it lacked the juvenile atmosphere, the books on top of the dresser made me feel a lot more comfortable here.

"You like to read?" She walked up to the dresser where the books were stacked. I hummed as yes as an answer, and watched as she tilted her head to be able to read the title. "Which books is your favorite?"

"I can't pick one…," I smiled nervously. To pick a favorite book would make her categorize me. I could pick a classic title, and she might assume that I'm pretentious, or that I'm stiff, maybe. Or if I picked a mainstream title, then maybe she'd think I wasn't a true book geek, or that I was simply saying a title that I thought she liked. I honestly didn't have one favorite book, I had a lot of books that I loved, and all for different reasons. They couldn't be compared.

"Isn't there one single book that you will read over and over again until it's falling apart?"

"There are a few of those, I've read Wuthering Heights too many times to count, but I'm not sure it's my absolute favorite book." The first time I read that book, I was eleven years old. At the time I couldn't fully comprehend everything in the book, or maybe it was just the blindness that came with reading a book for the first time, just like the blindness when watching a film. You miss a thing or two, because you're so wrapped up in what is going on.

"I tried reading that book for English, I read twenty pages, and then decided to bullshit my way through the class… I didn't get the best grade," she sat down on the bed again. "I don't like reading that much."

"I love reading… it's one of the few things I'm good at," I confessed, sitting down next to her, facing the stack of books.

"Don't you have like… straight A's?"

"It's because I liked to read, I read constantly, and through that I get the knowledge I need to be able to get the grades I want." It was simple really. Books weren't just fiction, they often included facts that I would not have come across unless I had the read the books

"Maybe I should try to finish a book, sometime." She stood up again, and looked around quickly, as if she was trying to find something else to talk about, but didn't find anything. "Um, Jacob sent me a text earlier, he wanted your number, can I give it to him?" She was biting her lip, nervously, though I couldn't really understand what she was nervous about.

"Yeah, why not?" Her face lit up.

"Great! Good night Bella!"

"Good night," and she was bouncing out of my room.

I decided to get ready for bed, and grabbed my toothbrush, hair brush, and all the things that my mom and made me take with me, and walked out to the bathroom in the corridor.

Once I emerged from the bathroom, fifteen minutes later, my face slightly flushed from scrubbing, Edward was just walking up the stairs to the third floor. If I said I wasn't checking out his but as he walked away, I would be lying. I was a bad liar, so I wouldn't even attempt it.

Smiling, because that was probably a perfect end to the day, I headed back to my room. I took my phone from the nightstand, and read the first text I had received ever from someone who wasn't my parents.

_hey bells this is my nr. Miss talkin 2 u… _

_J_

I smiled at the terribly written text, but I knew it was the way people tended to talk in texts, so I didn't judge him for it. If it were a proper text, I knew I would judge him.

_Hi Jacob, I really liked talking to you too : )_

_B_

As I waited for him to text me back, I put on my pajamas, and crept under my covers.

_do u have aim? skype? i like keyboards better_

_J_

I reached for my computer, lying underneath the bed, and started it up. Then I texted him my skype. I had gotten it so that I would be able to talk with my parents while I was away, but their internet had crashed when they got back after dropping me off, and hadn't had the time to set it back up.

A few minutes later his face, and shirtless chest, appeared on the screen, as well as my face under it, still a bit red from scrubbing. It was then I realized that I was sitting there in a tight tank top, and I wasn't wearing a bra. Maybe he wouldn't notice, I thought, and waved as he waved.

"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" I asked. It felt strange talking to a computer. He was holding up a mike to his mouth, smirking.

"I just got out of the shower," he looked down so that I could see his wet hair. Then he looked back up and stared for a while at something on the screen. I felt uncomfortable, I didn't know if he was looking at me or something else.

"What?" I had to ask, I couldn't bear the silence any longer.

"Why aren't you wearing a bra?" He smiled at me. I could see my horrified face on the computer. As quickly as I could I reached for the covers and pulled them up to hide my chest. "Prude," he said, teasingly.

"Shut up." My cheeks were now a beetroot red.

"Ok, sorry," he seemed genuine, so my cheeks cooled down a little bit, relieved that he was now going to stop teasing my about it.

"Why are breasts so… I don't know, what are they?" I couldn't say sexy, or even sex, that just wasn't a thing I could say.

"I don't know, man, I just like breasts, like most straight males do," he shrugged, then silently stared at me for a while. "You don't have to keep the cover up so high." I pulled the cover down slightly, so that it didn't reach my chin, but still above my shoulders. "You're definitely not like other girls," he smiled.

"How are other girls?" What was I doing wrong? Was I supposed to want him to see my breasts, to touch them? I was trying really hard to be normal, and I failed at it after just a few minutes.

"They're always trying to be sexy, pushing up their breasts in their faces, don't get me wrong… I like that, but I like earning things, too, you know?"

I looked as clueless as I felt.

"You want to see my breasts?" He laughed at my question. It was a big, hearty, laugh, completely void of sorrows. I liked that laugh.

"Yes, and I promise that I'm going to make you want to show me your breasts by the end of this summer, I'll promise you that," he seemed very confident in his promise, but I wasn't as sure of it. He was a total stranger, really. I've met him twice, briefly, and nine weeks weren't that long for a person to get to know another person. Nine weeks wasn't even three months.

"We'll see about that," this time it was my turn to give a smug smile.

"Ah, chica, you don't know what you're talking about."

After I had stayed up until 3 am talking to Jacob, getting up at 9 am didn't feel good at all. We had talked about everything. He was a dog person, and when I said I was a cat person, he said he wasn't surprised (I wondered what he meant by that but he didn't answer). He also revealed a few things about his music taste, which was the definition of eclectic. He also told me that Edward was investing in his father Billy's new business. Even though I wanted to hear more about it, I didn't want to reveal my infatuation with Edward.

Neither of us had wanted to stop talking, and that was definitely a first for me, but he had to go to work in the morning, so we both signed off and went to sleep. But before I drifted off, I got a text from him, saying good night.

It was nice, having friends. I had expected it to be demanding, and exhausting. The time put on friends was exhausting, but it was rewarding. Like getting an A on a paper, it felt like an accomplishment when the people around you are having fun.

Though, staying up until 3 am was probably stupid, especially since Alice rushed into my room at 9 am, telling me she couldn't wait any longer to interrogate me. She knew somehow that Jacob and I had stayed up half of the night talking. Maybe Jacob had told her.

"So, what did you talk about?" Her smile was almost as big as her face.

"Just things…," I shrugged. Nothing we had talked about had actually been important, it was basically mindless talk about what we liked and dislike. Nothing to write home about.

"How long did you talk for?" She was still smiling as big as she did before. It was starting to freak me out.

"About four hours," once again I shrugged, and stepped out of bed. Suddenly she started to squeal, and I jumped at the sudden noise.

"He _has _to come today," she said, and then ran out of my room, with her phone that had magically appeared in her hand.

What exactly did him coming today entail, I wondered. And what was the big deal about talking with someone for four hours, was it really unusual? Typical of me, going from unusually reclusive to talking to someone for way too long.

I would never be normal.


	5. The one where the author is sorry

I'm very sorry, to those of you who have been reading this story and waiting for an update... my life has been super busy the past few weeks. I've been working, been sick, moved and started university which turned out to be more time consuming then I had imagined. I've also had a hhuge writer's block, and I haven't written anything really for a long while it seems. Inspiration is pretty dead, and I don't feel much motivation to write anymore.

When BD pt 1 comes out in November it might spark some inspiration for this story, or another twilight story. But I'm starting to feel a bit more for the hunger games now.

But don't give up on this story, it's just that it might take a while for the next chapter to get up. It's all planned, but needs to be written...

Thank you :)


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